Pandemic changed course of golf travel
ROWAN SPARKES full-time staff on two courses and that balloons out to 200 for the tournament with volunteers.
“It’s one of those places where there’s not a blade of grass out of place, there’s no weeds – everything is just absolutely perfect.
“It was spectacular to see that and be involved, with all the buzz in the lead up.
“The staff had the course in really good nick and we were just there to finetune it.”
Hoskinson arrived back in Australia just hours before the government ordered a 14-day mandatory quarantine period for anyone entering the country, but made the choice to selfquarantine on his return.
“It was a bit painful because I’d already been away from the course for 10 days, and then I had to work from home for another two weeks,” he said.
Hoskinson said he was enjoying being back on the course for the third week now.
The course was open when he first returned, but has been closed since the start of the month. It will reopen today, only to members for at least the first week, with social distancing and other government restrictions also to be observed.
During the closure, Hoskinson led a number of improvements on course.
“We had a lot of these projects in the pipeline, but just due to general maintenance and presentation requirements we haven’t had the labour and the resources to carry them out,” he said. “As soon as the course was closed, we sat down with the board and pushed for a lot of these works and everyone was on board with it.
“We’ve filled in a lot of bunkers and we’re just shaping up a lot of those areas.”
Hoskinson has been at Cairns GC since 2017, following stints at Paradise Palms, Manly and Royal Sydney, as well as Congressional Country Club and Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in the USA.
SEE WHAT’S CHANGED AT CAIRNS GOLF CLUB — CAIRNSPOST.COM.AU/SPORT